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ASUS Triton 78 Review

Testing:

To properly test the ASUS Triton 78 CPU Cooler, I will be monitoring the highest temperature of the processor at Idle (little to no CPU usage), and at full load (100% CPU usage). My idle test will be done by running the computer for thirty minutes and recording the maximum temperature during that time. I will be using OCCT:PK to simulate a full load. I will run a torture test for 30 minutes with the mixed (CPU and RAM) mode turned on, and gather the maximum temperature during this time. The temperature monitoring software that I will be using is Real Temp 2.60, as it reads all four cores, documents the maximum temperature for a period until you reset it, and most importantly reads the 45nm processors' temperatures correctly. I will be taking the four highest temperatures that were given off during the test, and report the average of the four cores. The stock test will be done using all of the stock settings for the Q9450 @ 2666MHz. During the overclocked tests, I will be using 410MHz FSB with an 8x multiplier to give me 3280MHz overclocked speed, on a vCore of 1.34v. All of the temperatures are measured in degrees Celsius.

NOTE: Some of the listed heatsinks were originally tested using an E6600; I recently retested and gathered new data after the switch from the E6600 to the Q9450. The new temperatures are represented in the graphs below.

When it came down to it, the performance of the ASUS Triton 78 was only beaten out by that of the Scythe Ninja 2 and the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme - which were both very close in performance. I was surprised that the way the Triton 78 was built actually worked, as I was somewhat skeptical about how well it would perform.